<< Back 8/21/02 One-issue voters should look around By Scott McLeod It’s less than three weeks from election day, and I’m trying to sift through the candidates running for commissioner in Haywood County. So here’s my dilemma — is it possible for the county to get the best slate of candidates when all attention is focused on a single issue? Voters in Haywood County might better be asking themselves this question — or better yet, start asking other questions — because that is the situation they find themselves facing. This issue became the subject of an email discussion after a candidate forum, and I found myself fixating on it as the week progressed. Usually we in the press berate candidates because they often run for office by beating the drum about just one issue. This time, though, it seems voters and candidates are transfixed. The controversy over the construction of a justice center, jail, parking deck and renovation of the existing courthouse has lingered on until now, until the election of three commissioners. The three seats that are coming open could form a new majority on the five-member board. That majority will decide the outcome of this festering, contentious debate. That’s because the Local Govern-ment Commission has decided not to act on the funding request from the county until its December meeting — after the new county board has been seated. The whole project could come tumbling down at that first December board meeting by a vote of the incoming commissioners. I’ve never witnessed at the local level what I saw last week — a one-issue political forum where 15 of 17 candidates attended and nearly 100 voters were in the audience. Usually, anyone planning a forum goes to great lengths to be fair, to represent many issues and see that all bases are covered. The organizers of this forum, though, gave no illusions about their intent. This meeting at Hazelwood was the second organized by Ron Bradshaw, Austin Swanger and others, and its intent was to let people know how candidates stood on this single issue. As the attendance showed, many in Haywood County are indeed interested. But here’s the rub: The tax rate in Haywood is 61 cents per $100 of valuation. The justice center, parking deck and jail land will use 3.8 cents per year. Toss in another $10 million for jail construction and courthouse renovation, and you come up with probably just over 5 cents. That means this project will take about 8 percent of the money that commissioners control. How will they prioritize the rest? Don’t get me wrong. The courthouse-justice center is an extremely important issue. But those opposing the justice center are up in arms over the “process” and the “lack of leadership” (their words). The current board completely mishandled the project after it was evident that there was at least some opposition to the original plan. Since it was the process that was bungled, opposition grew — some of it related directly to the project, a lot more to the way misstep followed misstep. So choosing a candidate based on this single issue might not be a good idea. Yes, it is important to know how candidates will spend our tax dollars. But assessing leadership skills takes time, and one way is to observe people when they are under fire. Anyone following this issue might have formed an opinion of incumbents based on this measure, but the challengers haven’t been there. As with all elections, we must gather information and guess as to their skills. My personal assessment is that there are many qualified candidates running this year, at least seven whom I think could bring good ideas to the table. Over the next few weeks, there will be another forum (Aug. 27 at the HCC high-tech center), The Enterprise Mountaineer will be running candidate profiles, and this newspaper will also run information on all the candidates. We need to know more: how about increasing the sales tax, developing more comprehensive land-use plans, increasing teacher supplements, raising or lowering the property tax, recruiting a 1,000-bed prison and job creation? There is a deep well of issues out there. Between now and Sept. 10, voters truly concerned about the future of this county would do well to look beyond the courthouse and root out some answers. (Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com)